Who knows when we’ll see Sydney Sweeney and Colman Domingo back on our screens for Euphoria, but the pair are teaming up for something possibly more intriguing. Per Deadline, Sweeney is set to star opposite British actor David Jonsson in Scandalous after the long-delayed third season of Euphoria officially wraps. Domingo will make his directorial debut with the project.
Scandalous follows the short-lived 1957 love affair between the (Sweeney), the star of Vertigo and one of Hollywood’s most iconic blondes, and musician and Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr. (Jonsson). Novak and Davis met in 1956 on The Steve Allen Show and later started a romantic relationship with one another. The couple’s romance, which took place at the height of the Jim Crow, era was subject to criticism and racism from both in and out of Hollywood. Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures where Novak was under contract, voiced unease about their relationship and even reportedly threatened Davis to end the relationship or “he would lose his one good eye.”
In 1958, a Chicago gossip columnist wrote an exposé about the couple’s affair and their plans to marry (which they both later denied). The news quickly swept the nation and just nine days later, Davis married a Black woman named Loray White. Novak married a white actor, Richard Johnson, in 1965. However, it appears that Scandalous will focus on the couple’s whirlwind romance and its subsequent fallout.
Sweeney will co-produce the project with Tani Cohen and Bobby Roth. Domingo will direct from a script written by Matthew Fantaci.
Scandalous is just the latest project in what is already a jam-packed schedule for both Domingo and Sweeney. Domingo, nominated in the Best Actor category at last year’s Oscars for his performance in Rustin, is already garnering even more Oscars buzz for his latest role. He stars in Sing Sing, a drama about a group of incarcerated men who find purpose through a prison’s theater program. The cast of A24 film was comprised of mostly of first-time actors who are also former participants of the program.
Sweeney, meanwhile, had another stellar year in 2023 with her box office smash Anyone But You and her nun horror flick Immaculate. She also has two other films currently in the works: a biopic about the boxer Christy Martin (which she is currently filming) and The Housemaid which will see her team up with Amanda Seyfried.
As for when Scandalous will begin filming, that all depends on Euphoria’s production schedule. In July, Variety confirmed that the hit TV show is supposed to start filming in January 2025 after several major delays.
